Retail Market Livens Up in St. Louis

By Eliza Theiss, Associate Editor

Several retail-related news items made headlines in St. Louis recently.

On the traditional retail side was the sale of the Bellemore Village Center located at 3202 Nameoki Road. According to theSt. Louis Business Journal, the 107,000-square-foot Granite City shopping center was sold by Village Shopping Center Inc. for $5 million to local investment group Bellemore Center LLC. Buyers of the 100 percent leased property were represented by Neland Investment Management. Nelson McBride Development was chosen as property manager, probably not coincidentally as Bellemore Center LLC’s principals include Neland’s Nelson Grumney and Mark Nelson of Nelson McBride.

In other news, online retailer Cat5 Commerce has doubled its base-city presence, reports the St. Louis Business Journal. Cat5 now take up 20,000 square feet at 18167 Edison Ave. in Chesterfield. The company invested $120,000 in the additional space. But it’s not only surface area that grew for the successful company: Cat5 also increased its employee roster from 22 to 40 in 2012, thus increasing its product base and decreasing shipping time. Furthermore, Cat5 projects a 40 to 50 percent revenue increase in 2012 – which could mean $27 million compared to 2012’s $18 million.

Cat5 has 10 online storefronts.

In other retail news, controversy continues to surround the Shrewsbury Walmart, after news surfaced that the national chain’s proposed Watson Road store would still happen, in spite of a Tax Increment Financing (TIF) commission’s rejection of the development. According to several reports, Mayor Felicity Buckley still expects the project, and more importantly $15 million in TIF, to be approved by the city of Shrewsbury.

According to the Saint Louis Front Page, the 172,000-square-foot Walmart Supercenter was first proposed more than two years ago, but was put on hold until December 2012, when a tax incentive package worth up to $15 million was put on the table for developer G.J.Grewe, acting on behalf of the big box giant. Criticism of the project continues to mount as the $46 milllion store, planned on the site of the dilapidated Kenrick Plaza movie theater on Watson Road would be only a 10-minute drive away from not one but two Walmarts, one in Kirkwood and on in Maplewood.